Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre

Do you write your own material? Are you into poetry or jazz? Looking for an exciting platform to help share your work?

Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre presents Beatin’ the Blues, an event curated to provide students with a platform to expose their work, improve their craft, and give them a chance to collaborate with other artists.

Beatin’ the Blues is a celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) through the fusion of jazz and poetry. We are honoured to host the Oxford-based Jazz/Electronic band Wandering Wires who will be performing alongside readings of your poetry. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship between both the band’s and your own material - exploring the dynamics that can exist between jazz music and poetry. The event will take place on Sunday 28 April 2019.

Your brief

Write a piece of poetry in response to a song by Wandering Wires. Below is the list of these eight songs that you can choose from. They can also be found on Spotify. It could be a song that instantly inspires you, evokes strong feeling, or just one that you find interesting; there are no restrictions, we want to provide you with as much creative freedom as possible!

After writing your piece, submit it using this form. It is free to enter. Submissions are open from Monday 25th March and will close on Friday 12th April. We expect to choose 8 poems in total as winners, and you may enter more than one poem.

Below, you will find the list Wandering Wires have provided of eight of their songs for you to choose from, consisting of their new album Homecoming and a separate single. The tracks range quite dramatically, so it is worth having a good listen through most or all the songs - this should only take around 40 minutes!

The competition will be judged by the Director of the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre, Dr Niall Munro, and the Poetry Centre Interns.

Questions? Please contact Ruby Daley, the event organiser.

Terms and Conditions

We want you to have an much free rein as possible but there are a few conditions due to the venue and timing of the event.

1. Your piece must respond to one of the songs provided below. It could be inspired by Wandering Wires’ sound in general but must have a central focus on one of the songs provided.

2. Your piece must be no longer than 3 minutes long when performed. This is to ensure that we can give each poet an equal opportunity and also allow the band enough time to perform their music.

3. Unless you are one of the winners, we will not use or retain your contest information for any other reason than contacting you with the results.

4. The poem/s you enter must be your own work.

5. Poets will retain copyright of their work.

6. We expect to choose 8 poems in total, but the judges reserve the right to use more or fewer poems. You may enter more than one poem.

To enter the competition, visit this page.

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